"MasterChef (US)" - Season 8 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aarón Sanchez

While Season 7 featured a series of rotating judges to compensate for Graham Elliot's departure, Season 8 allowed for the opportunity to insert a permanent co-host alongside Gordon Ramsay and recent mainstay Christina Tosi, who joined in Season 6 to replace Joe Bastianich. Aarón Sanchez, who appeared in three episodes of the show's seventh season, is also known for having appeared on several shows on both the American Food Network and the Cooking Channel.

He specializes in Mexican cuisine.

Answer: Twenty

In a procedure similar to the previous couple of seasons, home cooks were invited to Los Angeles to participate in a head-to-head battle for a white apron. Forty chefs came out for their chance and only half of them received the white apron. In some cases, these battles were head-to-head-to-head-to-head (with two white apron winners in those battles). Each cook-off involved a particular type of cuisine with contestants needing to prepare their best fried chicken, scallops, pasta, tacos, duck, veal parmigiana, salmon, steak, or cupcakes to wow the judges.

This season, there were no do-overs; if you didn't get an apron on the first shot, you wouldn't be able to redeem yourself.

Answer: Chicken hearts

Mystery Box Challenges are a staple of the show, and the aim is for home cooks to use their skills to make the most of whatever is placed in front of them. This season, the chefs had to face off against a myriad of ingredients though very obviously some Mystery Boxes were geared towards certain food-types.

In episode 5, the Top 18 cooked with an assortment of shellfish; in episode 14, the chefs received Nutella as a star ingredient. Chopsticks were the only item in episode 16's Mystery Box, during which contestants had to make an Asian-inspired meal.

Answer: Rack of lamb

Straight from the farms of Colorado, the chefs were required to work with racks of lamb in their first Skills Test of the season (seen in episode 6). The racks that the chefs were required to work with were unadorned. They needed to remove all the fat and properly French the rack of lamb based on Gordon's example. If they could trim the cut to as close to perfection as possible, they would be spared from the subsequent Elimination Challenge, making use of the lamb they'd just worked with in another Gordon Ramsay dish.

Answer: Szechuan chicken

Pressure Tests are, naturally, high pressure! Every season, the typical run of the show involves a Team Challenge leading to a Pressure Test in the MasterChef Kitchen, and this season was no exception; contestants had to see how they fared against complex dishes in an attempt to stay in the competition. Episode four, the season's first Pressure Test, saw contestants battling to make a grilled pork chop dish inspired by Aarón Sanchez; episode seven saw the chefs make a classic British fish and chips; episode seventeen saw chocolate soufflés.

Answer: Shaun

Shaun O'Neale, who released his cookbook and traveled around the world since winning "MasterChef" in Season 7, returned for a curated Mystery Box Challenge in the season's tenth episode, giving the cooks venison tenderloin, pears, parsnips, and butternut squash amongst other ingredients. Cate won this challenge and got to choose whether her competitors made sweet or savoury dishes with coconut for their next challenge.

It got Reba sent home. Shaun was the only past contestant to appear in this season; notably, the season was also short on celebrity guests.

Answer: Caesar's Palace

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Caesar's Palace by serving fifty VIP guests, the remaining home cooks were split into two teams to serve either seabass or rib cap under the leadership of the previous task's winners, Dino and Daniel. It resulted in Daniel's team losing (due to poor cooking of the star of their dish, the seabass) but only two chefs, decided by Daniel, were required to attend a pressure test atop Nobu Villa in Las Vegas.

As such, Yachecia and Newton had to replicate a highly complex champagne poached oyster dish and only one of them (Yachecia) returned to the MasterChef Kitchen.

Answer: Crawfish

Heading into the MasterChef Kitchen as the Top 11, the chefs were greeted with bags of still-live crawfish that they would have twenty minutes to cook, strain, and clean to the satisfaction of the judges who would send all leading contestants straight to the balcony and into the Top 10. Anyone who didn't pass muster would have to stay at their station to cook a classic Gordon Ramsay dish, crawfish dumplings with an aromatic broth and garnishes.

They would have another twenty minutes to properly make this whole dish. Jenny was sent home this time, narrowly missing out on the Top 10.

Answer: Mexican cuisine

Heading into the season's fourteenth episode, the Top 9 encountered the Tag Team Challenge after a Nutella-themed Mysery Box won by Jason. It meant that not only was Jason immune and passed straight through to the Top 8, but he got to choose the pairs for a Mexican-themed platter that the duos would need to take turns working on over the course of an hour. Cate and Dino, Yachecia and Eboni, Jeff and Caitlyn, and Daniel and Gabriel, thus, needed to make homemade tortilla chips, a pico de gallo, spot prawn ceviche with avocado and shaved radish, lamb shoulder taquitos with avocado crema, red snapper tacos, chicken lollipops with peanut mole sauce, and churros. Caitlin went home on this challenge.

Answer: Dino

In a two-part finale featuring the return of former regular judge Joe Bastianich, three home cooks-- Dino, Eboni, and Jason, engaged in a head-to-head-to-head battle in the MasterChef Kitchen to earn the $250,000 prize, the cookbook deal, and the year-long spot on the MasterChef Cruise.

After an appetizer course, an entree, and a dessert, the judges selected Dino as the final chef standing. He was the first vegan chef to claim the title and the MasterChef trophy. Eboni and Jason tied as runners-up.